Philippines Electric Power and Water Utility Industry - The Omicron Disruption

E D I T O R ‘ S N O T E
The presence of the
Omicron variant, just
as COVID-19 seemed
to be fading from
view, has stalled much of the
worldwide return to work. It
is unknown how harmful the
new strain is, but governments
and companies are already
planning ahead.
Businesses have been forced
to rethink their return-to-work
strategies once again as a
result of the spike of COVID-19
cases associated with this
new variant. In fact, financial
firms in the United States were
among the first to urge staff
to return to work, but growing
instances have led the majority
of the country’s largest banks
to reassess their strategies
and tighten vaccination
requirements.
Throughout COVID, companies
were required to maintain their
reopening plans fluid and
adaptive to the pandemic’s
shifting scenario. As seen in
the summer of 2020, then in
2021 with the Delta strain, and
now with Omicron, companies
are repositioning themselves in
real-time.
Companies like from JPMorgan
Chase & Co. to Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. are encouraging
employees to work remotely.
Omicron Disrupting The
Utility Industry
While many countries are
not in a full lockdown and a
substantial number of workers
are still returning to work,
months of progress have been
lost.
Leaders’ actions about Omicron
response management (and
maybe future variants) will
have a direct effect on staff
engagement and retention.
Employers must deploy
support initiatives that meet
workers where they are as they
navigate their personal and
professional lives during this
spike.
Employees engage when they
have the flexibility, stability, and
task management necessary
to successfully integrate work
and personal life. Managers
must increase their empathy
in order to have a deeper
understanding of what people
need to be effective and
give enablement, not simply
engagement methods.
The critical point is to establish
a flexible approach with
specified triggers for plan
revisions. Organizations that
get this right do not align around
a certain, and mostly arbitrary,
date. Instead, they look at the
circumstances that permit
the opening or expansion of
an office space. Controlling
access to offices will also be
critical.
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